## Time To Shine: Seeing Opportunities In The Midst of Calamity
—PASTOR MARK MIKELS
Intro Time To Shine that’s the title of the new little series we embark on this week. It’s inspired by the headlines that have filled our papers for weeks now.
It would seem that our world is going to pot financial markets are in complete disarray the government is not only buying up bad mortgages but significant shares in troubled banks the stock market has plunged to its lowest level in years comparisons to the days of the Great Depression are being made.
In the face of all the upheaval, the presidential race has almost become an afterthought as though everybody knows it won’t really make a difference who is elected the problem is bigger than either of them!
It’s a bad time and it’s all happened so quickly that most people haven’t had time to actually consider what all the consequences might be.
But as those personal considerations begin to be made, more and more people are going to sink into despair. People who have tied their sense of well-being to things economic are going to be casting about for help.
My friends, It’s time to shine for you see, only Christ and only His True Church can shine in such a dark and calamitous time and there’s a sense in which that’s the very time when Christ and His Church shine brightest.
So as we launch this brief Fall series of messages, let me share two foundational concepts which will underlie the entire series …
Foundational Concept #1 …
Certain TRUTHS of the Christian Faith can be BEST DEMONSTRATED During DIFFICULT, (even calamitous) times.
Just as obedience is not best tested by telling your child eat your ice cream so many teachings of the Christian Faith are not best demonstrated or even best appreciated when times are good and life is easy.
In fact, some of the most significant truths of our faith are nearly forgotten or easily ignored during such good times.
Foundational Concept #2 builds upon the first …
Foundational Concept #2 …
Just as surely as God desires His Whole Counsel to be DECLARED so He desires His Whole Counsel to be DEMONSTRATED for truth undemonstrated is truth UNDOCUMENTED.
God wants His Truth His Whole Truth to be displayed before a watching world He wants His Truth demonstrated and documented. He wants His Truth lived out and witnessed about.
He wants curiosity created and desire generated in the hearts and minds of those who do not know Him.
Never are people more open to him than during tough times and it’s during tough times that some of His most important truths can be best demonstrated.
We could almost formulate a third foundation concept that says …
God orchestrates the coming of tough times so that those nearly forgotten or easily ignored’ truths will in fact come to the fore and be rightfully acknowledged and embraced and once again declared.
But we don’t need to go that far because man in his fallen state is more than capable of bringing on tough times all by himself.
Greed mixed with ambition combined with just the right amount of arrogant ignorance will do it every time it happens all the time it happens wherever and whenever people organize themselves occasionally it happens on a world-wide scale.
Our point today is that when it happens It’s Time To Shine it’s time for Followers of Jesus to demonstrate those Truths of God that are not easily or best demonstrated at any other time.
Over the next several weeks, I want you to consider with me several of those Demonstration Truths that are uniquely designed for days just like these.
## DEMONSTRATION TRUTH #1…
We are but STRANGERS and PILGRIMS in this WORLD. (1 Peter 1:17; 1 Peter 2:11; Philippians 3:20)
Now there’s a truth that Good Days tend to push into the background. During Good Days we tend to link ourselves tightly to those things that produce the good that we are enjoying.
During Good Days, we tend to identify ourselves in very definite earth-based ways.
We identify ourselves by the positions we hold, by the affiliations we maintain, by the possessions we acquire basically, by the things that connect us to the things that make our life here so enjoyable.
For all practical purposes, we live as though our citizenship in this world is the most important thing in our lives.
The Bible doesn’t know anything about that view of things.
Consider with me the Scriptures that buttress that Demonstration Truth we just identified.
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Philippians 3:20-21
Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 1 Peter 1:17
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 1 Peter 2:11
Strangers, Aliens (Pilgrims KJV) non citizens outsiders in many ways.
Jesus called it being In the world but not of the world (John 17:11, 16)
Troubles in the world can cause a non-believer to throw up his hands because all that he knows seems to be coming unglued.
Troubles in the world should cause a believer to lift up his hands because he remembers that this world is not his real and final home.
Stuart Hamblin the Hollywood cowboy/songwriter who was converted years ago under Billy Graham’s ministry expressed our truth of the day in this little chorus he wrote …
This world is not my home; I’m just’a passin’ through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
Troubles in this world serious widespread troubles can help a believer remember that.
At this point, let me share with you …
Today’s Key Reality …
As Born-Again Followers of Jesus Christ, we are CITIZENS of a Heavenly Kingdom and are (should be) only superficially CONNECTED to the things of this life.
We possess a HEAVENLY HOPE.
That was the dynamic of the early church that’s been the dynamic of the persecuted, down-trodden church throughout all the centuries since …
And that’s the very perspective that is easily forgotten in those rare (historically speaking) times of prosperity when the kingdoms of men and the Kingdom of God seem to be working in sync.
From that Key Reality then, based upon all that we have said to this point, let’s move on to …
Today’s Ultimate Recognition …
Troublesome Times Provide An Opportunity To RE-DISCOVER, RE-EMBRACE and RE-DECLARE The VALUE of our Heavenly HOPE.
Re-Discover … surely this is not new news but it is something that can easily be pushed to the back of our minds as we busy ourselves in our day to day lives especially when our day to day lives are generally enjoyable and seemingly sustainable.
Re-Embrace … wrap your arms around this great reality this most ultimate truth of our faith like an old friend that you haven’t seen in a while and realize once again just how short-sighted your life had become.
Re-Declare … testify to the fact that Heaven is your true home and that your stay in this world is both temporary and tenuous.
Let all who know you sense the hope that is in your heart a hope not based on passing circumstances but on God’s eternal assurances.
And what is the present day value of such a heavenly hope?
* Our Heavenly Hope provides a sense of STABILITY
The writer of Hebrews says hope in all its forms provides an anchor for our souls. (Hebrews 6:19) How valuable is that?
When the winds of change and turmoil blow when the waves of uncertainty and despair would cause others to drift far astray our lives, our hearts, our emotions are firmly anchored and we hold firm; we stand our ground in the midst of the most extraordinary circumstances.
* Our Heavenly Hope provides as well a sense of SECURITY
The Apostle Paul, writing from prison itself writing as one whose stay on this earth was mostly troublesome encouraged the saints in Colosse with the announcement that a believer’s real life is …
Hidden in Christ with God and that when Christ who is our true life appears, we will appear with him in glory. (Col. 3:3-4)
Our entire future life has been placed on deposit (as it were) in the bank of heaven where no failures will ever occur, where no bailouts will ever be needed. There’s nothing more secure more sure than that!
## Final Thot
Nothing lights up EARTHLY darkness like HEAVENLY hope. Put your hope in the LORD Invite OTHERS to do the same!